Conference ljsrv1::tv_chatter

    One of the BEST lines from that Pepsi commercial was when John
    Sebastian turned to "Country" Joe MacDonald (the same guy who yelled, 
    "Gimme an F... gimme a U.... ) and said "Gee, remember playing here 25 
    years ago?" and CJ looks around for a few seconds and says "No".
    
    Thought I would die... the timing was just right!

    Opening night of the Olympics, CBS aired a 30-second (at least) ad
    which consisted almost entirely of *something* burrowing all over the
    landscape, under the snow.  Very nicely done, and just when it was
    starting to get old...
    			   the thing slowed down, you could barely make out
    a stop sign and the weak glow of tail lights.  I don't think there was
    a voice-over; just the word
    				JEEP
    
    :-D
    
    Leslie

  I really like the Coke ads with the polar bears.

  George

    My dog is 7 years old and has never paid attention to tv at all, but he
    noticed one of the polar bear commercials the other day. He loves those
    bears! Never misses them now.  

Well, I thought I'd seen some obnoxious commercials in the past, but I think
an award has to go to the latest "1-800-COLLECT" commercial.  The one
with Larry Bud Melman yelling "can ya ever forgive me?" (that's the only
tolerable part of the commercial) at the end.  Who IS that irritating, childish
guy who does the commercial?  What's the target audience ... the "Generation
X" people, the thirtysomethings, what?  Help me, I'm gonna throw a brick thru
my TV screen!

    
    	No comments on the new K-Mart commercials?
    
    	EESH!!
    
    							GTI
    

  John Handcock has some really awful commercials.

  In one, the family is sitting at the diner table and mom is trying to talk
dad into letting grandma come live with them. The kid offers his room. Talk
about sentimental slop.

  But it gets worse, the one I really hate is the one where Dad is telling
his kid that he's got a terminal disease and he's going to die while the kid
sits there on the bed sobbing. That's a contender for the worst one I've ever
seen.

  I also hate the anti-smoaking ads. The new one for 2nd hand smoke has a very
deceptive scene that would never be allowed if it were anything that wasn't
reeking of being politically correct. It's the one where they show billows of
smoke being inhaled. Obviously they took a video of someone blowing out smoke
and ran it backwards. It's as dishonest as when they show explosions by putting
detonators in gas tanks.

  George

Re: .25

	The young guy is a cast member of SNL (and has also
	done bit parts in some movies, like "Demolition Man"
	and "The Coneheads").

    
    
    I kind of like the new Sears commercials where they are "pushing" their
    other products other than tools and big appliances. Come see the softer
    side of Sears.  I like the way they refer to things like "some shiny
    new hardware" and they show a woman wear a nice gold chain or like when
    they say "some new seat covers" and they show jeans.  I think the
    analagies are cute and the music is upbeat.
    
    

    The Sears ads are kinda cute, yes.  My daughter says the jingle singer
    sounds like Richard Simmons (I have to agree with her)!
    
    K-mart ads are self-contradictory: woman is indignant about shopping in
    "name" stores because she shops for the names *inside* the store.  At
    the end of the commercial the ding-a-ling realizes that "names"
    (including "K-mart") carry name products.  Duh.
    
    I like one of the Walgreen's blackout scenes - you see a rooster getting 
    ready to crow, and then what comes out is a classic first-thing-in-the-
    morning-heavy-smoker's-cough!!!  I think they're advertising cold
    medicine, but back when I smoked I had a few mornings like that!
    
    Leslie

    Re .28
    
    	The guy's name is David Spade.

There's one commercial that really annoys the H**L out of me.
Fortunately they don't show it anymore.

It's the one where this woman with a very short afro, (I think she's half
black, half white) asks you "how many ways do you need to make a collect
call?"  Then she proceeds to tell you ONE MORE WAY!

Arrg!  There's something very annoying about both her and the whole
commercial....I can't quite place my finger on it.

The funniest commercial I have ever seen is for a package delivery
service.  I forget which one... it's not FedEx or UPS.
Anyway, the commercial shows you what the "other" delivery services
are like, and shows you some heavy metal'ers with long hair driving
the delivery truck wildly, packages falling out into the street.  They're
listening to music, oblivious to what's going on.  

At the end of the commercial they're either on stage, or in a basement
playing instruments, and destroying peoples packages at the same time.

I don't remember all the ways they were ruining them, but one guy
had his wha-wha pedal on top of someones package, and as he was 
stepping on the pedal, it was crushing the package underneath it.

I don't remember it too well because I only saw it once, and that was
about 6 months ago.  I do remember laughing so hard though, that tears
were coming to my eyes!

Ken

    Ooh, I forgot about this string.
    
    Had to mention that I'm *WILD* about the new British Airways
    commercial (the long version).  Gorgeous and witty.
    
    I also love the "Regular? Or Decaf?" ad.  Unfortunately as an
    advertisement it's very unsuccessful (I've seen it at least 6 times
    and I can't remember what car they're advertising).
    
    Leslie

    
    	That regular/decaf ad is one of the worst I've ever seen.
    

check out the  "it's not polite to point" ad!!

First redeeming ad of the year ... that doggone penguin who keeps slipping 
in the snow and ice.  I laugh every time.  Unfortunately, they haven't 
managed to teach me the name of the car they're advertising ...

    
    I love the penquin ad!  He is so darn cute.
    
    Decafe/noDecafe -- HATE that ad!!

    Love the penguin, hate the decaf - and you're right, couldn't name the
    car in either one. 
    
    love the Charmin TP commercial with the cats unrolling TP side by side
    to show how charmin extra has more TP on the roll. end shot with cats
    sleeping on piled tp is great.
    
    Most other commercials are either muted out or fast forwarded, if on
    tape.
    
    janetb.

    Yeah, love that penguin commercial too - for BMW. I managed to remember
    after the second viewing. Now, where's my prize? ;-)

    I love the commercials with the battery people.  Especially the one
    with the grandmother who has been running on the same duracel battery
    since... the ice age!  haha!!
    
    MUCH better effect than that STUPID bunny!
    
    Holly
    

    I saw one for Johnny Cat (cat litter) last night that was cute. The
    general idea is: what a human sees  vs. what a cat sees
    
    Examples: 
    	what a human sees - full red satin curtains
    	what a cat sees - red satin ladder (it looked like a ladder covered	
    					in red satin)
    
    	what a human sees - little kid on a tricycle
    	what a cat sees - steamroller
    
    	what a human sees - pan of johnny cat litter
    	what a cat sees - elegant,large well appointed bathroom
    
    	what a human sees - box of catnip
    	what a cat sees - very colorful spirels and swirls
    
    As an owner of cats (or should I say, someone owned by cats), I know
    there is a difference in what I see and what they see!

    That Johhny Cat one sounds wonderful (have you mentioned it in the 
    FELINE conference?).
    
    Guess I'm overwhelmingly outvoted on the "Regular?  Or Decaf?" ad.  I
    just like how the waitress doesn't get ticked off by the brain-dead
    customer, and I like the rapid-fire images.
    
    Leslie

    Prior to "Regular or Decaf?" there was the "Paper, or Plastic?" version
    of this.  I liked that one better (I don't mind "Regular or Decaf"
    either). 
    
    Of course, now whenever I got the grocery store, although they hardly
    ever ask what kind of bag I want, that commerical goes through my head.
    
    Probably the neatest commerical of late that I've seen are the
    Budweiser ones with the Clydesdales playing a football.
    
    "They always do that?"  (by a human onlooker after one team of horses
    have scored an extra point)
    
    "Nah.  Usually they go for two."

    
    I have been cracking up over the new commerical for a grocery store;
    
    Wife comes home and she has "saved extra" and she is yelling to her
    football couach potato hubby that she has "saved extra" and he keeps
    yelling back "what" and she says again "saved extra" but he thinks she
    said "shave Ezra" (the family english sheep dog)
    
    next we see is Ezra shaved and all her hair around her feet. :-)
    
    

  I like the Bud-wis-er frogs. The 1st one which was released during last
year's superbowl was great. That's where they were 1st reading the sign. 

  The one where the frog latches on to the Bud truck is not that great but the
one where we meet Mrs Frog is the best of all. 

  Also from Budwiser the Bud Light ads "I LOVE YOU MAN", "Forget it Johnny
you're not getting my Budwiser". Really good put up of the modern touchy feely
world. 

  At any rate, there should be another great collection of ads starting Sunday
during Superbowl XXX on NBC. In fact jokes going around are that the ads
are expected to be so good and the game is expected to be so bad that people
will probably end up watching the commercials and going to the fridg to make
sandwiches during the game.

  George

    Saw one last night for what I think is a Dust Buster.  
    
    Bushy grey cat, Persian type, sitting on a step.  Cat gives a quick
    shake and BAMPOOF!  Hair almost literally explodes off the cat, 
    lying in big clumps everywhere on the carpeted stairs, the rug, etc.  
    Cat no longer has so much hair and wanders off. 
    
    Voice over:  "Shedding problems?"
    
    :)
    
    As a cat owner, it busted me up.  I wish MY vacuum cleaner was so good
    at picking it up at the Dust Devil (the "solution" to the problem in
    commerical) seemed to be.
    
    
    kim

    
    My latest favorite commercial is the new Budweiser commercial with 
    the Clydesdales playing football.  I saw it once on a Sunday afternoon
    NFL game.  Then saw it several times in succession up at the National
    Western Stock Show where the Bud Clydesdales were on exhibit.
    
    

  Dateline NBC had a segment on how the Clydesdales football commercial was
made. It went something like this:

  Those were real Clydesdales at the line of scrimmage. That was done with what
they called low tech wrangling (i.e. they just lined up the horses and drove
them toward the line of scrimmage). 

  - The kick was high tech. The horse holding the "ball" actually had his foot
    on a wooden block. They used computer animation to change the block into a
    ball. That was one mat.

  - The "kicker" horse was shot separately galloping up to the point where he
    "kicked the ball". That was a 2nd mat. His background was blue. I forget
    if he was filmed against a blue background or if his real background was
    erased.

  - There was a mechanical horse leg to actually kick at something done against
    a blue background. That was another mat.

  - The 3 mats were put together to show the horse kicking the ball. The kicked
    football moving off to the left was added by computer animation. The ball
    going over the telephone wires was added by computer.

  One problem they had was that after they put it all together they noticed
that one of the kicking team's horses was offside. Rather than draw a penalty
they modified the picture to move him back across the line.

  It was filmed in Idaho. Some 53 horses made the trip, but only 22 actually
got to play.

  George